In the Doorway to Development

Set within the growing literature on European economy in the late 18th and early 19th century, this book furnishes a “pre-history” to Norway’s rapid structural transformation and accelerated economic growth after the mid-nineteenth century. It argues that Norway in the long 18th century benefitted from an export-led growth, which exploited its abundant natural resources. The income from exports fuelled a substantial increase in consumption among rural households, while “pluriactivity”, a household strategy to balance market oriented production and consumption with self sufficiency in the insufficiently developed market succeeded in offering a “soft way” toward modern market society.

Ragnhild Hutchison, Ph.D. (2010) in History, European University Institute, Florence, is Post Doc in History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. She has worked extensively on production and consumption in the Early Modern Period.